It’s 9:43 p.m. We are taking advantage of Alya sleeping to GET THINGS DONE!! Some fun, more practical (bill paying, email catchup). And a quick update.
1. Starting an early bedtime for Alya was one of the best things we’ve done. Start with a bath around 6:30 or 7, then food, prayer, rock and she goes to sleep. Sometimes with a big dose of play. Sometimes it takes a while. But in general, by 8 or not much later, she’s sleeping. And it’s fine if she wakes up – the main thing is, she’s down for about an 11 hour period (maybe 10 if she’s up at 6) and getting rest she needs to grow. And she now expects it, whereas before she was up until 10 or 11, which was also fine, but she wasn’t sleeping and I didn’t have time to do things like – clean bottles, do dishes & laundry, pay bills, etc. Or just, as we did on Sat. night, watch a movie with my husband. And btw, he usually does the bottles, dishes & sometimes laundry.
2. Help for those “I can’t play with you any more” moments: Giving baby a massage – she loves it, at least part of it, and it gets me focused and relaxed and I know how to do it. Then: babywearing. Baby loves it. I love it. I do work, she enjoys and learns, it’s good all round.
3. Last night she slept from 8 – 2, then was up for a while (longer nurse, bit of bottle, change of diaper). And then she was relaxed and not asleep so we lay beside each other, face to face, and she reached out and touched and grabbed different parts of my face, but gently, and I rubbed her head and back, and after a few minutes she rolled onto her back, stretched out her arm, and went to sleep. Still wrapped in my arms. Love.
4. Being present more. My biggest parenting challenge.
5. Good food for parenting thought: http://www.wallsofsilence.com/article_read.php?a=56
Reminds me of a Waldorf-training friend saying that for young kids, they need the parents to know what to do and to do it – not ask the kids what they want done. If the parents don’t know, how can they be trusted?
6. Food, health, gardening, organics, budget, meal planning. They’re all connected. And disentangling/making them all work is a lot of work. For now, we’re trying to eat well, I’m trying to plan meals that are basic and fairly organic and not too expensive or too much work but also tasty, and we’re planning our spring growing.
7. 9:53, bottles to wash (of course M will, but I want to help), I’m still hungry, and it’s time to go.
8. Alya is the most beautiful little person I’ve ever met.